Canada’s border agency misled the public on its highly touted “most wanted” list by inaccurately portraying some people as war criminals, says Canada’s Privacy Commissioner.

The finding came more than two years after refugee advocates complained that border officials violated the individuals’ privacy rights by posting their mug shots and personal information, including date of birth, on the Internet and social media.

Although the federal privacy watchdog said Canada Border Services Agency’s information disclosure was justified in its attempt to locate those wanted for removal from Canada, it chided officials for the loose use of the term “war criminals” to describe the people on the list.

“References to the label ‘war crimes’ or ‘war criminals’ were potentially misleading and not adequately justified by the CBSA,” said the commissioner’s report made public Thursday.

Jennifer Stoddart, the outgoing commissioner, is being replaced on an interim basis by Chantal Bernier.

In July 2011, then Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Public Safety Minister Vic Toews launched the most-wanted program at a news conference by posting online profiles of 30 individuals described as “accused of, or complicit in, war crimes or crimes against humanity.”

The Canadian Council for Refugees complained to the privacy commissioner on behalf of Abraham Bahaty Bayavuge, a “wanted” Congolese man, who was never charged or convicted of war crimes but worked as a civil servant for a government Ottawa disapproved. The man was later arrested and deported.

Toronto immigration lawyer Angus Grant, who represented the complainant, said the commissioner’s finding vindicated what refugees’ advocates had said all along.

“The list was created for political purposes,” said Grant, calling the most-wanted list the Conservative government’s attempt to “vilify refugees on its own assertion that they were war criminals.”

Grant said immigration laws have a much lower evidentiary threshold and a person can be deemed inadmissible to Canada by just being “close to a war crime.”

None of the 30 cases had a finding that the person had committed war crimes, said Grant, and the accusations were based on officials’ “reasonable grounds” to believe that is the case.

The most-wanted program preceded the government’s introduction of the Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act in 2012, which in turn allows Ottawa to strip permanent residents of immigrant status and deport them for minor convictions ranging from shoplifting to traffic and drug offences.

“There is nothing more stigmatizing than labelling someone as a war criminal. It creates a sense that Canada has become lax in enforcement and become a haven for war criminals, which is patently inaccurate,” said Grant.

The CBSA said it welcomed the commissioner’s finding that the program is consistent with the agency’s mandated responsibility for law enforcement.

“The posting of a limited amount of personal information to the Wanted by the CBSA website has allowed the CBSA to successfully enlist the help of the public in locating individuals who had previously eluded the CBSA and their law enforcement partners,” said CBSA spokesperson Maja Graham.

Through the program, she said, 49 people have been arrested and 41 removed from Canada. Currently, there are 20 people posted on the list.

Janet Dench of the refugee council said at least four others on the most-wanted list — from Algeria, Angola, India and Rwanda — have been cast as war criminals simply based on the government’s definition and were excluded from refugee protection.

By widely publicizing the most-wanted list, Dench said, Ottawa has put these individuals’ lives in danger upon deportation to the countries they fled from.

The border agency still posts profiles of its most-wanted online, but now deletes them from its website within 30 days after the person is arrested. It has agreed to the privacy commissioner’s recommendation to review the amount of personal information revealed before its release.